Material for instrument panel - recommendations?

[tinnews]

I'm going to have to replace the instrument panels on our recently acquired boat, the current ones have too many 'spare' holes and redundant instruments to be re-usable. In addition the current inside panel is too thick for a lot of the switches mounted on it so the previous owner had just wedged them in, or not, as the case may be.

So, I'm after some sort of material suitable for replacement panels.

The 'indoor' panel doesn't need to be weather proof, it's flat and about 60cm by 33cm. I has several 2" diameter meters on it, switches, and various lamps. I will probably also move the VHF radio (similar to a car radio) to this panel.

It needs to be fairly easy to make neat holes in it, probably with a hole cutter or similar, it probably also would be best if it was a dark matt sort of colour. Ideal thickness is in the 3 to 5 mm region I would think.

The outside panel (on the "Flying Bridge") is a lot smaller, just has two meters and a couple of switches. It needs to be more weather resistant but otherwise the requirements are similar.

Can one get plywood or similar with a laminated face - like a blackboard I guess?

Any other ideas?

[Dave Liquorice]

Self coloured perspex or polycarbonate sheet? Easy to drill and file, totally waterproof. Check local sign makers for a source, they may have offcuts...

[The Natural Philosopher]

well we can laser cut ply or acrylic to that gauge if you like.

yes, essentially contiboard but with ply. melamine faced. Harder to cut.

[Frank Erskine]

[pete]

In the past I've bought sheets of laminate material from RS. You can glue them to plywood with a contact adhesive. It's quite hard wearing and if you have the right tools you can engrave it as the sub-layer is a different colour from the top layer. The material is not easy to cut to a clean finiah, but if you have arouter, you can tidy up the edges after you've glued it to a wooden substrate. Search the rswww.com site for "engraving laminates".

[Donwill]

Definitely Tufnol I think. Don

[Cicero]

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A quick guide to plastics here and good service:

[newshound]

Tufnol is expensive, but it it tough. I used an unreinforced thermoplastic sheet from CPC or RS for the last similar job I did. Acetal, I think.

[Frank Erskine]

That's why it's called Tufnol :-)

It machines very easily, even using decent woodworking tools, and has a very good finish, even if unpainted.

Admittedly ebonite isn't so easy to obtain these days, although I do have a small stock...

[Tabby]

Plastic sounds ideal. Not a cracking type like perspex though.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd agree with that. Wide range of colours, easy to work, and easy to polish scratches out of.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Perspex is pretty strong. Was used for Spifire windscreens in WW2.

[Donwill]

But it was at least 1/4 ins thick ASFAIAA. This guy requires 3 to 5 mm, drilling large holes in thin perspex can be difficult to avoid cracking. Don

[Bolted]

And it is very easily scratched and will look a mess pretty quickly.

How about a solid melamine panel, all the usual suspects (Formica, Abet, Polyrey etc) do them or there is Trespa

easy to clean, loads of colour choice, pretty easy to work with. The downside would be price.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

3mm plywood would be pretty weak too. ;-)

I've never had any problems drilling Perspex. But obviously do it in stages if using ordinary twist drills. If using a hole saw you have to be careful not to melt it.